


Light in the Shadows of Drustvar

by delta_altair



Category: RWBY, World of Warcraft
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Developing Relationship, Jaina Proudmoore (Mentioned) - Freeform, M/M, Witches, day 3: fantasy AU, fairgameweekend2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delta_altair/pseuds/delta_altair
Summary: Paladin Clover Ebi is sent to investigate the lingering corruption in the Drustvar woods. His team finds themselves ambushed by wicker monsters, but rescue comes from an unlikely source./////Check out the character designshere!
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Light in the Shadows of Drustvar

**Author's Note:**

> RWBY people; hi! If you don't know anything about WoW, don't worry, I try to mostly focus on the characters here, and WoW is a pretty archetypical fantasy universe. Should I decide to continue this work, I'll explain more things as I go along.
> 
> WoW people; hello! If you have no idea what RWBY is, that's ok. This is more transplanting some character into the WoW universe. This takes place after the canon Drustvar storyline that our characters are involved in.
> 
> Also, check out the wonderful character designs by aBanana [here!](https://abanana.tumblr.com/post/631089793364803584/ah-here-it-is-my-fair-game-weekend-day-3)

_“Beware, beware, the Daughter of the Sea…”_

Captain Clover Ebi coughed, loudly. The previously singing oarsman paddling their boat winced, throwing a sheepish look behind him and mumbling, “Sorry sir.” 

An eerie silence fell once again, punctuated only by the faint sound of paddles dipping into the water and the occasional creak of armour. There was no wind. The seagull cries had stopped a while ago. Perhaps he shouldn't have interrupted the oarsman. Even a woefully inaccurate folk song about their Lord Admiral would be a welcome reprieve to the suffocating silence.

Especially given what they were headed towards.

The western shore of Drustvar slowly crept into view. The horizon was thick with fog, obscuring all but the very edge of the shoreline and the shadows of the twisted, gnarled trees that covered the land. 

Clover turned to address the rest of his squad. All five of them were crammed into the long rowboat, leaving barely enough room for the two oarsmen on either end. This was Clover's first time working with this particular group -- as a paladin, he usually worked alone -- but their elite status among the Admiral's Guard bode well. They all wore armour similar to his own, with the anchor of Kul Tiras emblazoned on the breastplates, though theirs were all silver instead of his own gold. The warrior Elm and the priest Vine had served Lady Katherine for many years. Harriet had guarded privateer vessels as a rogue before joining the service several years ago. Even the youngest, Marrow, had impressive accomplishments under his belt after only two years as a guard. However, while the young hunter kept a steady eye on the horizon, his fingers tapped nervously along the edge of the bow in his lap. He was nervous.

Not that Clover could blame him. Witches were no trifling matter.

"Shall we review once more before we arrive ashore?" Clover asked. With four quick nods, he continued. "Lord Admiral Proudmoore wants us to investigate rumours of corruption within Drustvar. Our goal is to establish whether there is a credible danger to the people of Drustvar, then report back to Boralus."

"Could this be the Horde trying to distract us?" Harriet asked with a scowl. "The Lord Admiral and those Alliance champions already took down Gorak Tul. It seems pretty convenient that dark magic starts to spring up right as Kul Tiras heads to war with Zandalar."

Clover nodded. "It could be, but even if it is just Horde spies sowing chaos, we need to root it out."

"We'll be ashore soon, cap'n!" the oarsman announced. 

Marrow squared his shoulders. "We're ready, sir!"

"Good." Clover turned back around, warily eyeing the ghostly shoreline. Now that they were closer, he saw that the leaves, both upon the trees and scattered about the ground, were all a dark, overly saturated red colour. The colour of blood. He sighed. "The Light will protect us."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Their boat left the moment they had all clambered onto the beach, heading south towards the village of Falconhurst, the only thing resembling civilization for quite a distance, to wait for them. Clover led the four up into the woods, the soft sand quickly giving way to dry, crunchy leaves underfoot. Fog still hung thick and low in the air, making it difficult to see more than a dozen meters ahead. The twisted branches of the trees formed macabre cages above their heads. And still the air was windless, terribly strange for an island nation like Kul Tiras. It was as if something had the forest of Drustvar held in a vice grip, letting not even nature move an inch. 

Clover kept his lance at his side and his eyes focused on the distance. Elm was directly to his right, battleaxe in hand. Vine followed shortly behind, and Marrow and Harriet, an arrow nocked and daggers drawn, took up the rear. 

At least an hour of travel passed before Clover spotted anything other than dark trees through the fog. They had come into a small clearing with a formation of rocks in the centre. The rocks were stacked and had symbols drawn on them in white chalk. It reminded Clover of some of the shaman totems he had seen on his voyages away from Kul Tiras. Affixed to the top of the stack was a twisted wicker effigy that resembled a claw grasping at the rocks below it. And perched on the edge of the rocks, furiously biting and tugging at the effigy, was a crow. 

It looked like no crow Clover had ever seen before. It didn't have the sleek, uniform black body of the corvids around Boralus. Nor did it have the bleached, cracked wood design of the crows that were the familiars of the witches. It almost looked like a hybrid. Both glossy black feathers and dry, stiff pieces of woven wood made up the form of the bird. Clover glanced down at the symbols on the stack of rocks. They weren't the glyphs of the Heartsbane coven, but instead looked druidic in nature. Was this....? He took a step towards the structure.

"Hey, watch it!" Harriet called from behind him. The crow's head snapped towards them, piercing red eyes settling on Clover for a heartbeat, and then it shot into the air with a shriek and flew off into the foggy air. 

Clover turned, confused but projecting a firm stance. "Why did you scare it away?"

"Sorry captain, but those are Thornspeaker runes," she said, pointing towards the stack. "Could have been a trap."

"The druids of this forest do live close to the dark magics of the witches," Vine provided. "Not the Light, as we do, captain. It is wise to be wary."

"I see." Clover turned back to the rocks, surveying the formation once again. He couldn't sense any magic coming from the stones, but the wicker claw at the top gave off a strong negative aura. " _That_ looks like it came from the witches." Being careful to watch out for traps, Clover walked forward and reached out towards the effigy. Warm golden light coated his hand, and he could feel resistance as he pushed towards the claw. With effort, he was finally able to grasp it and pull it off the totem. It quickly disintegrated to a smokey cloud of ash. A soft hum sounded from the stack of rocks. "This is a natural ward," he surmised. "I don't quite understand the magic, but I don't think it's dangerous. I think the wicker object was blocking it." 

Elm spokes up, "I've heard stories that the Thornspeakers were protectors of the forest. But there aren't very many of them left."

"Maybe that's why the witches are still able to have so much power, even though Gorak Tul is dead?" Marrow speculated. 

"Perhaps," Clover nodded. "This will all be important to report. Let's keep going."

As they continued their push through the forest, Clover felt as if he was being watched. At first he thought it was just nerves, but the sensation remained for several minutes after leaving the clearing. He kept his eyes peeled on the canopy for any movement, but spotted nothing. The presence didn't feel malicious, but it still concerned Clover. 

He was about to tell the rest of the group when Marrow suddenly hissed, "Hold!" They all came to an abrupt stop, weapons at the ready. Marrow had his bow drawn, pointing to the north. "Heard something moving," he muttered. 

Clover stared out into the fog, focusing to catch any kind of movement. The only thing in that direction was a stunted tree, just at the edge of the fog, with a split trunk, two large branches that drooped at the ends, and a crowd of gnarled twigs atop it. 

He stared for another moment before he heard it. Creaking. _Wooden_ creaking. And then the sound of snapping twigs as the top half of the tree _rotated_ towards them. The deep gashes and empty knotholes flared with a sickly blue flame. 

More groaning sounded behind them. Clover whirled around to see two more of the creatures creaking and shambling to life.

"AMBUSH! Stick together!"

Vine wasted no time, firing off a bolt of holy energy towards the northern creature. It let out a horrifying shriek, clawing at the burning wood on its body. But Vine’s spell was effective.

"Vine, bless Marrow's bow!" Clover rushed towards Elm and Harriet, who had drawn up close to the other two guards, and jammed his lance into the ground. He laid one hand on the haft of Elm's axe and stretched the fingers of his other across Harriet's blades. Magical energy flowed out of him and into their weapons. He worked as quickly as he could, knowing more of the creatures were bearing down on them. Finally the magic set, and the weapons glowed with Light. "That should help." Picking up his lance, he turned and faced the woods.

Thankfully a low-lying gorge was to the east, so there were only three directions from which the wicker monstrosities could approach. Clover, Harriet, and Elm formed a defensive grid around Vine and Marrow. Their spells and arrows were able to keep most of the creatures at bay, while the melee fighters pushed back any that got too close. 

But Clover realized they would quickly be overwhelmed. What appeared to only be four quickly turned into more than a dozen lumbering monsters. Gripping his lance, Clover channeled the Light into the steel, until the weapon was trembling with resonant magic. He tossed it into the air to flip the tip forwards, and then hurled it into the swarm.

The lance pierced the ground and exploded with holy light. A billowing shockwave of golden magic surged forward, totally annihilating the closest creatures and severely damaging the rest. Clover exhaled sharply -- that had worked, but it had taken a lot out of him.

"Great hit!" Harriet yelled before charging at one of the stunned monsters, Elm close behind her.

Vine tapped Clover on the shoulder. "You stay back, we can handle the rest." 

Clover nodded, too out of breath to properly respond. He backed up to the edge of the cliff while Vine and Marrow moved forward. The young guardsman fired off arrow after arrow, each glowing with Light, felling several of the wicker creatures at the back of the swarm. 

There were only five creatures left. One of the most damaged ones suddenly stood bolt upright, it's blue flames changing to a dark crimson. It looked directly at Clover and roared. With lightning speed, incongruent with its injuries, it picked up a large chunk of its wicker armour that had fallen to the ground and hurled it at Clover.

Harriet yelled, hurling both her daggers at the projectile. It was lucky she did; they glanced off, but the impacts caused the chuck of wood to slow down. It gave Clover just enough time to throw up a shield of Light before it slammed into his chest. The shield protecting him from what could have been fatal damage, but the force still hurtled him off the edge of the cliff. 

Clover thought he heard Marrow calling out to him before the only sound he could hear was the cacophony of his armour hitting rocks on the way down.

Thankfully, Clover had spent a long time learning the intricacies of shielding magic. It was one of his best talents. So by the time he finally rolled to a stop, he only had a few small bruises, and his shield held on for a few more seconds before sputtering out. He was safe, though he was going to feel that fall in the morning. 

Groaning, Clover stood up and brushed the caked-on mud and dirt from his golden armour. Some of the detailing around the anchor on the breastplate was dented, and the green cloth around his waist had been torn slightly, but the damage was mostly superficial. 

Clover gave his surroundings a once-over. He was in a narrow gorge, trees on either side of him leading up steep cliff-sides. It had been a long drop -- even if Vine could levitate the rest of the group down, it would take a while. He should start climbing back up. 

He had barely begun climbing when he heard a twig snap behind him. Whirling around, he reached back to grasp...nothing. His lance was still at the top of the cliff. 

And on the opposite side of the gorge, a tree three times the size of any he had faced above began to move. A gargantuan, lumbering monstrosity turned its head towards him. Fiery blue eyes stared at him listlessly before suddenly narrowing and turning red. 

Clover took off in a sprint, heading lengthwise down the gorge. He couldn't fight that brute without his weapon, but it looked slow. Maybe he could outrun it. 

A tangled snarl of vines exploded in front of him, blocking his path forward. As he skidded to a stop, Clover's heart seized in his chest. This wasn't the work of some mindless forest monsters. This was _targeted._

Clover moved forward to try and quickly scale the wall, but found he couldn't move at all. He turned and saw that the behemoth had its arm, a swirling claw of roots, outstretched and extended to a horrifying degree. And those roots were wrapped around his legs. 

The creature snapped its arm back in a flash, slamming Clover into the ground and dragging him backwards. Before he could even react, the ground beneath him fell away. The wicker brute lifted him into the air, dangling Clover upside down in front of its gnarled mockery of a face. Clover grunted in pain at the crushing pressure the roots held on his legs. Flaring red eyes dug into his very soul. Clover's head was spinning, and he barely had any mana remaining. 

But before Clover could even begin to formulate a last-ditch plan, the creature shuddered. It's head twisted around -- sickeningly, _completely_ around -- and stared into the tree line. 

Was it his team? Had they defeated the rest of the monsters and gotten down that fast? Clover squinted, trying to discern what the brute was looking at from his upside-down and painful point of view. There it was, movement in the trees. It was...small. Mostly black.

A crow? 

Without warning, the creature dropped Clover. He hurled toward the ground, and the last thing he saw before his world went black was a brilliant flash of starlit magic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soft crackling fire gently pulled Clover back to consciousness. He blinked his bleary eyes, trying to focus on the light in front of him. There was the fire, warm, welcoming, orange. It was sideways in his vision -- he must be laying down. Then beyond it, lots of little lights in wide arcs, and two searing points just above them. Red lights.

 _Red lights._ Witch corruption.

Clover shot up straight, and then immediately regretted it as his head pounded. He winced, rubbing his eyes. His helmet had been taken off, he belatedly realized.

"Slowly, now. Or is this your first time falling out of a tree?"

The voice, thankfully distinctly human, had a low, raspy timbre to it. Clover squinted into the darkness. The higher set of red lights went out, then came back on again. Oh, those were eyes. There _was_ a human on the other side of the cave. Clover could barely make out the shape of the man sitting on the ground. It looked like he wore a billowing cape of dark feathers and had equally dark hair. That was all Clover could discern, aside from the glowing red eyes and the strings of red lights across the other man's chest. 

"Who...are you?" Clover asked. The red eyes worried him. But the man's voice, as rough as it was, somehow felt comforting. There was some sort of familiar feeling as well, but Clover couldn't quite place it.

"I'm a Thornspeaker," the man answered. 

A druid, then. Clover looked again at the mantle of feather. Realization struck him. "Did you save me?" he blurted.

Glowing eyes widened slightly, then narrowed and glanced away. "Yeah. Those behemoths are tough enough as they are. Even worse when she's directly controlling them. You must have really pissed her off."

Clover blinked at the sudden deluge of information, but took one thing at a time. "Thank you, ser, for-"

The eyes impossibly narrowed even more. "I'm not a knight."

"I...I'm sorry. Thank you for saving me. I almost certainly would have died without your help." He shifted so he was sitting cross-legged, a little closer to the fire. "You were the crow?"

"Mhm."

"Your magic is powerful."

"That explosion of Light wasn't half bad either," the druid replied, his voice lighter. Despite the darkness, Clover could somehow tell than the man was raising an eyebrow. "Having to throw your weapon away for a big attack seems a little inconvenient, though."

Ah, so he had watched the entire battle. Clover chuckled, feeling a light flush come to his cheeks from the tease, and ran a hand through the shorter hair on the back of his head. He paused, realizing he expected to feel some sort of injury and felt none. "....did you heal me?"

"Uh, yeah. You hit your head when you landed, but that was sort of my fault for attacking while it was still holding you."

Feeling his worries melt away, Clover smiled. "Then I'm even more in your debt. You can heal, shapeshift, and use nature magic, then?"

Silence fell for several moments. Clover worried he had said the wrong thing, but the man's voice was tinged with sadness, not anger, when he finally spoke. "The Thornspeakers pride themselves on teaching druids all the ways of protecting nature."

"I see. I apologize to press you with so many questions, but I was sent here to investigate the witch's corruption of these forests. My name is Clover Ebi, I'm a paladin of Kul Tiras. The wicker beasts had many more numbers and were much more violent than previously reported. You mentioned a...'she'?"

"Yes." Red eyes closed. "Salem."

Clover felt a chill run through him at the name, though he had never heard it before.

The druid continued, "After Gorak Tul, the previous leader of the coven, was slain, there was a power struggle among the witches that had escaped alive. One came out on top, Salem. She is by far the most powerful witch I've ever seen. She isn't Drust, like Tul was, but her abilities border on his level. Her corruption is...extremely effective. She can take direct control of the wicker constructs, as you experienced."

"Wait, that was _Salem?_ That was who I was fighting?"

"Yes, congratulations. Most don't live to tell the tale." He let out a long sigh. "The Thornspeaker leadership knew about the threat of Salem, but wouldn't move against her. They said it was too dangerous. I took a group of my closest friends to confront her directly, to stop the corruption of the forest. We failed, horribly. My friends....they died in the fight against her. I barely managed to escape, but not without being cursed by Salem. I only have marginal control over my nature powers, and...well. You saw what my crow form looked like. You can see my eyes." The fire crackled and flared, giving Clover just enough light to make out the man's features. Tired eyes regarded Clover over high cheekbones. A bit of scruff covered a sharp jawline. His hair was indeed jet black, and appeared as feathery as his cloak. "I can't let her win," he whispered. "Can't let her corruption spread any further. So I fight however I can. Thank you for destroying the blocker on that ward. I can't get near them in my human form. Though that was probably what angered Salem towards you."

Clover took a moment to absorb it all. "I'm...so sorry. Your courage in the face of loss is...incredible, if I may say that." The druid glanced away, but didn't object. Clover continued, "As I said, it's my mission to try and root out this corruption. We can work together. I have to report back to Boralus, but I'm certain Lord Admiral Proudmoore will request that I return."

"Katherine Proudmoore ignored the struggles here in Drustvar for years," the man intoned. 

"And Lady _Jaina_ Proudmoore is now Lord Admiral, and helped kill Gorak Tul," Clover countered.

"....oh. Well then. I'll....think about it."

The fire flared up once again, giving Clover another look at the druid. Clover glanced down from his face, momentarily distracted by the man's lean yet muscular figure, before his eyes honed in on a smear of blood. "You're wounded," Clover said. 

The man's hand shot to his side, covering the blood. "It's nothing. Brute got a few swipes in is all."

Did he forego healing himself in order to mend Clover's wounds? Clover stood and held out a hand, though made no move forward. "My mana has recovered, so I can heal you just fine. Please, let me repay you in some small way."

Red eyes stared at Clover for what felt like minutes, before the man glanced away once more. "You can try. Though I doubt the Light will mend someone as unlucky as me."

Clover's brow knit with concern, but he walked forward anyways. He knelt down next to the druid, waited for him to move his hand out of the way, then hovered his gauntleted palm over the gash. Holy Light gently trickled onto the man's skin, cleansing the wound and gradually knitting it shut. 

The druid sighed with relief and whispered, "Thank you, Clover."

Up close, the reddish glare of corrupted magic was much less obvious, and Clover stared into the man's eyes, unsure of what to say.

"Captain!! Captain Ebi, are you here??"

Clover looked towards the mouth of the cave as the druid recoiled slightly. His team must be looking for him.

"I have to go," the man said, standing. "I...thank you, again. I'll find you if you come back. And make sure you bring _more_ soldiers if you really want to stop Salem." He marched towards the entrance, picking up a twisted wooden staff on his way.

"Wait!" Clover called. "What's your name?"

The druid let out a short huff of breath. "Don't laugh, alright. It's Qrow. With a 'Q'."

Clover smiled, "Actually that's quite charming."

Qrow turned around to fix him with a sharp glare, but Clover thought he saw a faint blush on Qrow's cheeks before he transformed in a puff of feathers. 

The feather-and-bone crow sailed out of the cave and into the sky. Clover picked up his helmet from the corner of the cave. This was a strange turn of events, but a strangely welcome one. As he set off in search of his nearby team, Clover knew that he trusted Qrow. And he hoped they'd meet again soon.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, a big thank you to the Fair Game Effect server <3! The magnitude of the creativity from you all astounds me.
> 
> And a huge thank you to my amazing beta readers, [thedarkpoet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarkpoet/) and [alphaparrot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphaparrot). You rock <3


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